God’s Word as Seed

If you are privileged to be the owner of a Bible, you have a tremendously valuable treasure. How much you use it, how much you benefit from it, is up to you. The purpose of this series is to unfold for you a deeper understanding of just how much the Word of God can achieve – for you, for others and for God’s purposes. When you understand this, it is our hope that you will be motivated more than ever with the love of God to get this Bible, this Word of God, to as many lives as you possibly can!

The Power of Seed

There is an urban legend that seeds found in an Ancient Egyptian tomb were taken and planted in the ground thousands of years later and they grew. Whether this story is true or not, there is one kind of seed which is incorruptible, and never loses its power or its ability to produce life. I am referring to the seed of God’s Word, which is a spiritual, and eternal seed.

The Scripture says we should love others, “having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever” (1 Peter 1:23)

When we have a Bible in our hands, we have something which can communicate the incorruptible seed of God’s Word into our hearts, and the hearts of others. Where this “seed” is planted, and watered, we can expect there is going to be a result. The potential of the seed today is as great as it was when Jesus and the early church began planting it.

God has spoken many things, and each of them, if attended to, have the power to produce after their own kind. There are a variety of promises God has made. The most important ones concern our eternal salvation. All the promises of God were given for a reason however, and it is up to us to plant these seeds in our own hearts, in the hearts of those around us, and in the hearts of people around the world. In this way we can look forward to a great harvest of righteousness and blessing. We are planters of the best seed ever! Just how great your own harvest will be depends in a big way on the extent of your planting.

The great thing about the Seed of God’s Word is that it can be multiplied constantly. We can multiply it by printing it, typing it, speaking it or giving money so that others can do this.

When a person is spiritually and mentally transformed by the power of God’s Word, they themselves become a new source of seed to touch their world. If a person is a “good ground” hearer the impact of their lives should be 30, 60 or 100 times greater than the original investment of seed planting and cultivation that went into their lives (see Mark 4).

The more we plant the seed, the more “good ground” hearers it will reach, and the more we become partakers in God’s eternal plan to rescue those whom He has chosen.

Different Parts of the Word of God Produce Different Results

There are many different promises and teachings in the Scriptures. If you have the privilege of preaching God’s Word to people, you will observe over time that you tend to get results according to the content of the message you give – though not always immediately.

For example, if you preach 1 John 1:9 all the time, “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” you will get Christians who will confess their sins to God a lot, but not necessarily overcome their sins. At least they will know how to return to God and receive cleansing. Some Christians don’t understand this, and therefore they become guilt-ridden or obsessed with feelings of unworthiness. Some people run from God, never to return. So it is important to preach this Scripture, but it is not enough.

If you preach how Jesus heals, you will normally get some results of physical healing amongst people. The churches which preach that God may not want to heal you, and that Jesus is in effect a very unreliable healer who more than likely wants you to stay sick – these churches don’t see many healing miracles. This message is not in line with the Word of God. If you preach unbelief and skepticism concerning divine healing, don’t expect God to reward you with lots of healings in the church. It would be like planting weeds and expecting pineapple trees.

When people started preaching the promises and statements of healing, like Ps 103:3, “who forgives all your sin, who heals all your diseases” slowly but surely the Word of truth concerning this started getting planted in the hearts of those who formerly had no expectations in the matter. It even started to work against the prejudices of those who were firmly convinced that God was the author and promoter of disease in His children. Some resist the Word to this day but I believe attitudes have softened and more Christians than ever generally see God as a healing God, a good God. Something like Jesus, who “went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38)

The Seeds of Holiness

We live today in a very wicked age, and sadly carnality is a popular lifestyle choice also for many in the church. Many people assume that holy living is out of reach. Thankfully there is a remedy, and once again it is found in the Word of God. In spite of what men may say, “this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thessalonians 4:3), and the Lord desires to see His own nature and purity formed in us more completely over time. From day one, those who believe are called to forsake all the sin they know about, and follow Christ wholeheartedly. Again, it is the Scripture which teaches this. The seeds of discipleship, of holiness, of God’s requirements for separation from sin must be actually SOWN in the hearts of believers so that they will take root and produce the appropriate harvest.

“Be holy, because I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16)

“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23,24).

There are more promises on this subject than can easily be mentioned in a short article like this. I urge you to research the matter, write out the relevant Scriptures, and reflect on them regularly, ESPECIALLY if your pastor never teaches them much. Sadly we can’t always rely on pastors to teach the whole counsel of God in this age of wickedness where people are chasing the approval of men more than the approval of God. The truth is there, the seed is there, but we have to plant it. You can expect a harvest according to what you plant.

There are so many other kinds of promises in the Bible, and in further articles in this series we will touch on them. God will produce the fruit of the Spirit, he will give success, favor, answered prayer, provision, deliverance and more because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, out of which flows his provision for every area of human need. But to actually receive the benefits, people must hear about those things, and so the relevant part of the Word of God must be planted.